In Blackest Night
by Talos the Saiyan
Summary: The peace that has reigned on earth since the defeat of Cell is brutally shattered when a group of dead enemies, led by a heroine of old attack the planet Earth. With more rising to join the horde, the Z-Warriors must stem the tide - and stem it quickly


Darkness

Since long before the dawn of life; there has existed darkness. Most humans see darkness as a mere absence of light; a simple fundamental law of the universe that means precious little when looking at in the grand scheme of things. They think it doesn't matter; they say that they've tamed it, that they've beaten it. Beaten it with lights, chained it with laughter. Held it at bay with the force of technology.

They're wrong, of course. Darkness is much more than mere absence of light. Darkness is a concept; darkness is a feeling. Darkness is the terror in your heart when the lights go out; darkness is the silent fields at night; icy cold and void of life. Darkness is oblivion. Darkness existed long before the birth of the universe. Long before there was life, light, laughter, technology or even the most ancient ancestor of mankind, there was darkness. And after the universe ends, it will still be there.

And darkness cannot be tamed; it cannot be stopped. It can only be delayed. Held at bay with force of arms. Why do you think that the most ancient tribes would huddle about the fire at night? Why do you think they would shake and shiver despite the warmth of the crackling flames? Why do you think they were _afraid._

It was because they knew. The most ancient tribe knew more than the most advanced civilization. Darkness is a force; a river; a vast ocean of emptiness. You can deny it, you can stave it off with things like fire and light and warmth. You can fight it with the laughter of friends, the closeness of family.

But...

Friends move on; family members grow old and die. Fire burns out; laugher turns to sorrow. Warmth passes on and turns to snow.

And in the end, waiting for you as only it could, there is darkness. It cannot be killed; it cannot be beaten. It can be delayed, but eventually, it will take you. _This _is the real fundamental fact of the universe. No matter what you do, no matter who you run to, no matter how much power you have. Darkness will find you. And no matter how hard you fight, in the end you will tire and it will not.

Darkness wins its battles.

Most of the time.

Because once, long ago, there was nothing but darkness. No existence, no planets, no worlds, no life. Just vast, all-encompassing nothingness. Darkness in all its forms. Alone as it should be. And that carried on for endless time. For time had not yet come into being.

But one day, there was light. And with it there came time, causality, love, hate, hope, willpower, avarice and compassion. The White Light of Creation. It shone brightly about the universe and because it did, there _was _a universe. Matter came into being; lifeforms of all kinds began to evolve. It was the birth of everything. The Big Bang.

But Darkness struck back. Splitting the White Light into multiple, paler, shadows. Weakening it so that darkness could win the day. And so were born entropy, despair, age and death. And for millions of years, the two forces counter-balanced each other. Existing in harmony, more or less. Darkness, as was its nature, would win out in the end but Light knew that it should exist and burn brightly for as long as it could,.

Billions of years passed. Planets formed; life grew. Whole civilizations were born and killed. Life grew older as was its curse, but its flame burned just as brightly.

Victory was assured in the end, but Darkness did not want to wait. For the first time in its whole, immeasurable, existence; it actually _acted,_ it created a champion. Someone born (if ''born'' was the term for such a thing) of the very essence of darkness itself. He was it and it was him. And he and his legions of the damned fought a war on life itself.

And they lost.

But before they did, he crafted a weapon. A perfect, final weapon to be used to destroy Light utterly. Using its own power against it, the Being of Darkness knew that this would be the undoing of all things.

See it now.

Small in stature; innocent. Indeed, one might even say that it was beautiful in a way. The craftsmanship was amazing. A simple symbol carved into a solid black ring. The symbol, a stylized hand reaching out.

No one looking at it would know the history of this device; as it sailed through the endless vastness of space. Powered by its own strength; the tiny device bore no distinguishing markings which could tell its past. What it had done.

Or what it could do.

But if someone who knew how to read what faint signs that were there was present, this is what they may have read.

This ring was the last of its kind. It had escaped from a place very far away and was searching for something that it could use. It was damaged; its programming becoming corrupted by a near hit from a will-power-driven beam of emerald light. Such a light could not destroy the ring of course. But it could weaken it.

And now it needed to be strong again.

Inside the ring; there was no computer. For computers are things of life. Things of light. There was however, a twisted sort of sentience. One that cared not for its survival, for the survival of anything was anathema to its existence. With senses too arcane and too horrifying to properly describe, it searched.

It didn't search the space around it.

It didn't search the planets nearest to it.

It searched the whole universe. Scanning countless lives; so many beings, so many lights. It searched each one in kind and came to the same conclusion.

No use.

It could not find that which it sought.

Angered, if such a strong, _alive_, emotion could be applied to the eldritch mind of the ring, it expanded its search. Where was there to go, if it already had scanned the whole universe, you ask?

Simple. It went beyond.

There exist world between worlds. Planes that exist in the cracks of reality. Such places are often the home of spirits, of gods.

Of Kais.

Three subjects were judged worthy. Three places of rest. Only one could be disturbed. The ring chose carefully; normally such a slow selection process was against its nature however for all it knew, it was the last of its kind. Failsafe programming that had never been expected to be used was kicking in and forcing the ring down this strange and unusual path.

There! That one.

The ring turned and began to fly. Slowly at first but picking up speed as it went. Around it, there glowed a dim aura of black energy. Not Ki. The very opposite of Ki. For Ki was of the light of life. Ki was a direct descendent of the White Light of Creation. Ki was the enemy. The target.

No, if Ki is the energy of life then this must surely have been the power of death.

There was sound too. Despite the lack of air to carry it; despite the lack of anyone to hear it. The ring sang to itself.

It sounded like a swarm of flies.

The ring reached critical speed. There was a flash and a portal opened before it. Existing just long enough for the ring to slip inside before it too vanished into the darkness.

**Somewhere else...**

The sky was red and cold. It was always cold on this planet. Great walls of ice reared up into the sky. A glacial fortress world that dared any life-form to intrude upon its solitude. For over a hundred years, it was a challenge that had gone unanswered. No one was stupid enough to live here. The cold was enough to freeze the breath in your lungs. Even species evolved to survive in heavy duty ice-worlds left this place well alone. There was something about it, they said. Something in the air.

There was no life here. Not anymore. But once, there had been. Once, three lifeforms had come here. One had died and the others had left. Then, the dead one had been entombed in ice. Slowly pulled deep into the core of the world as the glacial mountains grew. By now, there was no sign of that fight, titanic as it had been, left. And the dead Kai was buried so deeply that not even the most advanced technology in the universe would have been able to retrieve her.

But the ring was not technology.

With a flash, it appeared. Hovering in the air above the world. Rotating gently on its axis. For the first time it spoke and its voice was in the low tone of the damned.

**Scanning...**

**Target Locked. **

The ring accelerated straight down With the strength of orbital bombardment, it smashed into the ice. Chips the size of steam boats were hurled into space by the force alone. There was a great shriek, as though the planet knew of the horror about to take place and was denying it.

But even a fortress of ice cannot defeat the dark.

Down and down the ring bored. Its black aura tight about it like a cloak. Covering miles of ice in mere seconds, it homed in on the one it had designated as the most worthy.

She was preserved in a block of ice. Just the way that she had been when as died. Great ragged wounds strewn across her body. Her eyes open in terror and the realization that death had come. She made such a beautiful picture, frozen in the ice. Had things been different, the ring may have found someone else.

But things were desperate and so the ring sped on. It pierced the block of ice that formed the final barrier; cracks spread like the web of a spider as the ring wedged itself onto her slightly decayed finger.

A second of nothing and then...

**Guardian Kai of the Western Quadrant. **

The body glowed for a second; engulfed by the same aura that had ensconced the ring Tendrils of dark energy crawled across it. The ring fixed itself properly and said one final thing.

**Rise. **

The ice exploded; hurled outwards by an incredible force. Dark energy that may once have been Ki radiated outwards. Smashing chunks of the glaciers and forcing the hole carved by the ring wide open. Ice cracked and screamed in protest but it was of no use and soon a shaft large enough to accommodate a decent sized spacecraft had been formed by the power.

The mist began to clear and where the body once stood...

Well, it still stood.

Except. It now stood on its own two feet. Its eyes were dark and void of life; its movements were fluid but its form was like that of the corpse that it had once been. It growled; a low animal sound as it stretched slowly. In sick parody of a sleeper just wakened.

It - no, she - opened her mouth. Dark sludge trickling from between her cracked lips. Her body was in such a state that none could mistake her for the living. Great wounds torn during the fatal battle with the monster Buu dripped dark liquid which may once have been blood. Her left arm was skinned to the raw bone, twitching every few seconds. Her hair was almost all gone; her skull pockmarked and rotted.

She made a low sound. Half gasping half laughing. A death-rattle.

" Hhhhaa"

Upon her left hand; upon the steaming bone there was the ring. Glowing softly it emitted a single sentence before settling down once more.

**Welcome to the Black Lantern Corp, welcome to the peace of oblivion. **

The former protector of the universe looked up at the stars.

"So many lights..." She hissed. Her voice was primal. A cross between a gasp and a wet gurgle. "So many worlds...so many places...fear not...I will...save you...all. I will...save all... Hhhhhaaa... I bring the peace...of...oblivion..."

She turned from the sky at last, having taken her fill of stargazing. The world had a thin atmosphere already. She would be able to pierce it easily. She'd reach the nearest inhabited worlds in a day. But then what? Though she would bring them the peace of oblivion she knew that mighty as she was, there were others stronger yet. She would need to recruit more. But for that there would have to be death... oh yes, so much death... for new rings to be formed, more had to die. For more dead to rise, more of the living had to fall. Such was the way of things. Such was how it always had been and always would be. Until the very end of existence.

Which, if she had anything to say about it, would be soon.

"Looocaaattteee." She half groaned. " Neearest...inhabited woooorllllld"

Her ring made a soft sound of confirmation. A single finger of black light lanced up into the sky, crossing interstellar distances in a heartbeat. The Kai looked up and leapt after it. Catching herself in the air as she did. Her flight at least, had not decayed as her body had. She was still agile, still nimble.

Still deadly.

Her decayed mess of a face slowly formed into what looked like a death-grin.

"Blackest Night...falls from the skies..."

And so, the single Black Lantern shot into the air towards her target. None knew then just what she would bring the universe to. None knew of the pain she would cause.

But they would learn.

Oh yes, they would all learn soon enough...


End file.
